The New Kid
by PsOhKiEpMpOeNr9
Summary: A new kid arrives at Kadic Academy. His name is Stephan and after stopping another attack and returning to the past, they learn something peculiar about him. Can they use his guidance to foil X.A.N.A.'s master plan in store for them? Or will his plans 'consume' them all? Rated T for now, most likely to be upped due to later content. Reviews wanted. Like an alternate end to series.
1. Another Day

Chapter 1

Another day, another new attack would commence. X.A.N.A. simply activated a tower in the Desert Sector and waited for the Lyoko warriors to come to him. He did however, begin researching top secret information, to try and find a new attack to launch for another day.

Yumi sat with her book-bag next to her in the back of her parent's car. She was ready for another day of secondary school and watching out for X.A.N.A. attacks. It had been an odd week. Not a single siting. Her train of thought was cut short as her father said, "Here we are Yumi. You have a good day now."

"Ok. See ya later dad." She got out of the back seat and waved as he drove away. Her black hair swayed in front of her eyes as the wind kicked up. Wearing her usual outfit, she made her way towards the dorms, hoping to catch Ulrich. There was something important she wanted to tell him.

Meanwhile, Jeremy was sound asleep in his room when the scan he had been running through the night erupted in a bleeping sound. Stunned out of bed, he stood up and walked over towards the computer. "What the-?" His nasally voice groaned out. The scan picked out a disturbance from a tower. There was also one unidentified avatar running around in the central hub. It was not of X.A.N.A. origin or a Lyoko security measure. It definitely wasn't one of the guys. "What is that? I've got to tell the others."

Jeremy sprang into action, getting dressed and then heading out towards the courtyard. Within a couple minutes, the whole crew was gathered outside at a bench under the shade of a tree. They could see the main dorms just off to their left. Jeremy and Aelita sat on the bench, Odd sat on one of the hand rails, Ulrich leaned against the tree, and Yumi stood in front of the bench.

Ulrich's eyes darted to the left as he asked, "So… you're saying this thing was neither X.A.N.A. nor a protocol?"

Turning his head, Jeremy answered, "I'm afraid not. He must have entered like you would have."

Yumi threw out her hands as she exclaimed, "Except how did they find out?"

"I have no idea." Odd said, his shoulders shrugging. The first bell rang in the background, startling Odd as he fell of his perch on top of the bench. The others laughed as he landed face first. "Ah, I just can't believe my luck. You know, they should really do something about that. A genius like me could hurt his brain doing that."

Yumi laughed, then said, "Oh yeah, are you sure haven't done that one too many times already?"

The whole group erupted in laughter. "Humph. Just you see." Odd muttered under his breath. The breeze kicked up again.

"So when are we going to deactivate the tower?" Ulrich asked. He glanced off towards the entrance, seeing a car pull up to it. The ride was a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT. It was snow white. The passenger side door opened up, revealing a kid. He stepped out and waved goodbye to whoever was driving the car. It sped off as he turned to walk onto the campus.

It could just barely be heard, as he said, "So this is Kadic Academy? What a drag." Ulrich could clearly see him shrug his shoulders. This mystery kid wore a black fedora with a white band wrapping around it. This hid his face fairly well. Shoulder length black hair jutted out from under the hat and was placed in front of his right eye. A messenger bag was also hanging on his right side. He wore a black Avenged Sevenfold shirt with black jeans. Blue and black tennis shoes poked out from under each pant leg. He didn't take two steps before being confronted by Sissy. Ulrich turned his head away at that point.

"I guess we could do it after lunch." Ailetia said.

"Yes! Finally a day I get to eat lunch, maybe even twice if we return to the past!" Odd yelled as he jumped into the air. Ulrich turned back to the entrance, but the new kid was already gone.

"I'll probably just meet him later." He muttered under his breath. The group then separated, hoping not to be late for their first class.

In Yumi's English class, she sat more or less front and center. The second bell signaling the first class to begin rang as a stranger walked into the room. This kid was none other than the one Ulrich saw beforehand. The teacher walked over and moved him front and center in the room. He had a near unemotional look on his face, which was absolutely stunning. She could hear all the girls shifting around, purely in love with this new kid. His eyes shimmered in the light, and his hair was well kept. A defined chin with small ears also complemented his face.

"Tell the class your name." The teacher said to the new kid. The teacher then physically shrank back as he gave her this cold, uncaring glare, as if to say, "_You don't think I know how to do that? What's wrong with you?_"

He then turned to the rest of the class and said, "My name is Stephan Black. I am a foreign exchange student." All the kids sounded impressed and amazed. "Anyways, I have come from the United States of America." He glanced back at the teacher with a straight face.

The teacher jumped slightly, and then stammered out, "You can sit in that empty desk, next to Yumi". The teacher pointed towards the empty desk on her left. He took off his fedora and walked to desk. He sat down, glancing over at Yumi, and smiled. She smiled back and looked over towards the front.

At lunch, the group of Jeremy, Aelita, Odd, and Ulrich sat at a table alongside a window and away from other people. Ulrich heard light-hearted laughter and turned around. His eyes widened and he gritted his teeth. Yumi was walking down the aisle with that new kid. She was laughing and gave the boy a playful shove. "That's so wrong." She managed to sputter out between laughs. He nudged her and smiled. They walked over to the table with their trays and sat down. Jeremy, Aelita, and Ulrich sat on one side and Odd on the other across from Jeremy. Yumi sat next to Odd and Stephan across from Ulrich.

Ulrich turned towards the smiling face of Stephan. His eyes glared coldly at Stephan when he said, "So… I thought I saw you talking with Sissy earlier." He twiddled his fork amongst his mashed potatoes. Stephan glanced down at the way Ulrich messed with his potatoes, and the smile vanished.

"Well, she was pretty, but within the first few words she said I was ready to punch her in her blathering, conceited face." Yumi glanced at Stephan and he leaned back. "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Stephan Black."

"I'm-", Odd started, but was cut off.

"Yumi already told me all about you guys." Stephan said.

Jeremy glared at Yumi as he said, "Oh, did she?"

"Yeah, you're Jeremy the boy genius. She would be Aelita the innocent one." Pointing towards Odd, he said, "You are Odd, the odd, and Ulrich the most badass kid to step foot on Kadic grounds, accept maybe me."

"So how long have you been in France?" Odd asked with his mouth full of mashed potatoes.

"Only for about a week. My aunt let me set up one day, explore the city for the next day, then just a few days to get class work aligned and most of it finished. I've pretty much caught up for the few weeks that I technically missed."

Aelita waved her hand through the air delicately as she said, "Tell us about yourself, if you don't mind."

"Sure. Let's see, I love video games and often play hidden gems of games. I don't play sports. I play the piano and guitar. Personality wise, I just don't like beyond stupid people. I hate the kind of people that might have good grades, but lack common sense and/or decency. Oh, and I love Avenged Sevenfold." Hearing him talk, Ulrich heard his voice, which was a warm tenor. He could probably sing too. Also, seeing his defining features under the fedora, he could clearly see that he wouldn't have a problem getting along with girls. Probably why Sissy talked to him when he first arrived. Maybe she would finally leave him the hell alone.

The bell rang for next period and the group dispersed. Planning to meet up in the factory, the students arrived in class, and shortly after asked to go to the infirmary with a sore throat, or stomach cramp. Odd, Ulrich, Jeremy, Aelita, and Yumi all headed out into the woods to get to the factory. Ulrich lifted the heavy, rusted manhole cover and the whole group climbed down the ladder. Each grabbed a skateboard or scooter and rocketed down the sewer system. The stench of the familiar sewer echoed through the hallways. Each teen climbed back up onto the bridge and entered the factory. Oddly enough, when they reached the area with the chords dangling in the air, only four were set up to swing on. The other was already on the other side of the room.

"Someone's already here." Yumi said. She sighed heavily.

"You think X.A.N.A. is attacking the super computer?" Jeremy asked in exasperation.

Ulrich jumped onto a rope. "I don't know, but I'll search the place, you four go deactivate the tower." Odd and Yumi took separate ropes while Aelita and Jeremy shared one. They smoothly landed and each got onto the elevator. It dropped to the control room. Jeremy got off. The elevator then dropped down to the scanner room as the rest left.

"Get ready to be virtualized." Jeremy said as the group entered the scanners. Scanner Yumi. Scanner Odd. Scanner Aelita. Transfer Yumi. Transfer Odd. Transfer Aelita. Virtualization." The blinding flashes of light of entering Lyoko screamed by at breakneck speeds. "Giving you your vehicles now." They were sitting at the entrance to Carthage, better known as Sector 5. Everything was so deeply blue. "You need to head to the terminal so you can then head for the Desert zone." Riding their vehicles, they quickly zoomed over the Creepers guarding the button.

"Shouldn't we stop to kill them?" Yumi asked as she looked over the edge. The shifting floor panels revealed a path to the right.

"Just ignore them if you can." Jeremy said over the COM. They hovered through the entrance and then drifted towards the edge of the elevator. As it passed, they followed after it as fast as they could. They heard it squeal to a halt and watched the door open. Drifting through the bright light to the terminal, they drifted through the wide open space. Data was being stored all around them.

"The data tunnel is open. Move fast enough and you won't have to even deal with the manta rays." Jeremy typed in Ulrich's number to call him for an update. "Ulrich, have you found anything yet?"

"I've searched the whole place. It's obvious someone has been here recently, but there's no one here now. I've even checked the super computer, and there was no sign of damage but someone had been there too." Ulrich explained.

"Ok then, I guess you could get in the room with me in case someone tries to attack me."

Meanwhile, they reached the barren region of the Desert Sector. Still in construction, it looked very empty. The region currently consisted of two towers that Jeremy managed to program into the server. They flew over the empty landscape. Suddenly the first tower went from blue to **black. **Strangely enough, it wasn't red.

"Jeremy? What's with the black tower?" Odd asked over the COM.

Yumi shook her head as she said, "I knew this was too easy. Look down there!" William stood with his great sword near the black tower. He glanced in the air and saw them. He lifted his other arm, as if to command an invisible militia.

"I've looked through the database, but I haven't seen a single thing on a tower turning black. It could be a glitch in the system. Maybe X.A.N.A. is summoning something from the real world." Jeremy informed them, sweat beading down his forehead. "Uh oh. Guys, you're not alone. Ten tarantulas are surrounding the tower. Plus William."

"Jeremy," Aelita started. "Hate to break it to ya, but we only see William. Maybe it's another glitch." Just then, William's arm lowered. Then, simultaneously, 20 lasers flew into the air after them. Then, a barrage of lasers erupted into the skies. Odd and Yumi's vehicles were quickly shot down, crashing in the distance. Odd was the first to move.

"These are impossible odds, especially if we can't see them." Odd took a knee and surveyed the flat, floating rock they stood on. The tarantulas came into view, their silver bodies shimmered in the distance. Their screams sounded like that of insane asylum patron with a straight jacket. Lifting their arms up, they prepared to finish the fight. But William raised an open hand, signaling them to stop.

He then turned back to the tower and pointed at it. The Tarantulas obeyed, turning and firing on the vulnerable tower. "What is he doing?" Yumi said as she sat up on the dirt. Aelita was already standing, shielding her eyes from the bright 'sun.'

Jeremy spoke over the COM. "If X.A.N.A. wants to destroy it, then it is probably an ally to us. You have to protect to the tower." They began to run forward, but were cut short. William walked around the Tarantula closest to them and pulled up his blade. He charged forward at lightning speed and slashed at Yumi. She jumped into the air and swept his legs when she landed. He jumped up and ran at Odd.

"Oh crap! Shield!" He yelled as William's blade met with the purple circle of Odd's shield. William forced him to his knees, smiling. Then, a loud crash of thunder echoed through the mostly empty air. William froze, his arms twinging. He turned around to see a pillar of black having sprayed into the air. The Tarantulas were bent on one knee, shielding themselves with their arms, all frozen in shock. Then, a black smoke ball dropped down through the pillar towards the tower.

"Guys, I strongly advise taking cover. At that velocity, it's gonna do some serious damage." The crew then ran and took cover behind a rock. William swiped his hand to the right. The Tarantulas began to run away, but it was too late. The smoke slammed into the tower. The impact sent a massive shockwave that was shrouded in smoke. The Tarantulas were knocked off their feet and collapsed into the smoke. It finally slowed to a halt just in front of William, who stared on in disbelief and anger. As the smoke rose into the air, majestically curling like an acrobat, it was obvious that all the Tarantulas were killed by the landing of the mystery object.

A cloaked figure stepped out from the tower. It had a bright blue jacket with white gloves, boots, and hood. The hood nearly completely hid the features of the face. It smirked as it stepped towards William. In its left hand was a about as thick as Jeremy's chest was wide. A large chord was wrapped up in the same hand. A thick, red tassel hung off the hilt. The same sign in the towers was plastered in white on the back its jacket. Also in blue on the hood.

William charged towards it, blade over his head. The figure was completely stoic, blade by its side. William stopped in front of it, with his blade coming down. With its right hand, he grabbed William's hands on the hilt. His attack stopped dead. The blade was pointed directly in the air, still. Using the dull edge, it slammed the blade in William's abdomen. He bent forward. It lifted its left knee up to William's head. His entire body flipped into the air and land on his back. Vision hazy, he rolled to his left to meet the boot of the mystery soldier. His head snapped back to the right and faded away, leaving smoke behind. That was the first time William had been beaten. He was retreating to his new master, X.A.N.A.

The figure slowly turned towards them. In a deep, bass voice, he said, "He is gone for the time being. Deactivate the other tower while you can." Odd and Yumi looked at him strangely, but Aelita understood. He turned his back to them and walked back towards the tower he came out from. She nodded and began to run. Within a few minutes, she was at the tower and shutting down X.A.N.A. The really weird part was that there not another monster for the rest of the area.

Ulrich shrugged his shoulders, saying, "I guess we can just go back to class. How long did that even take?" He glanced at the clock at the computer. "How is it already 2:00 in the afternoon?"

"We've been out too long. We're definitely getting punished for this. Maybe that was X.A.N.A's plan. To keep us out late enough, we have to go back. So he can get stronger." Jeremy punched a few commands into the computer before saying, "Return to the past now."

The whole crew was again gathered outside at a bench under the shade of a tree. They could see the main dorms just off to their left. Jeremy and Aelita sat on the bench, Odd sat on one of the hand rails, Ulrich leaned against the tree, and Yumi stood in front of the bench.

Ulrich's eyes darted to the left as he asked, "So… you're saying this thing was neither X.A.N.A. nor a protocol?"

Turning his head, Jeremy answered, "I'm afraid not. He must have entered like you would have."

Yumi threw out her hands as she exclaimed, "Except how did they find out?"

The first bell rang in the background as Ulrich once again turned towards the entrance to catch a glimpse of Stephan once more. He got out of the car in the same fashion. Walked up to the entrance, and sighed. When Sissy approached him, he pushed past her. "What? He's not supposed to do that."

"What?", Odd said. He looked over at Sissy. "People ignore her all time. It comes by habit."

"Yeah, except the first time, he walked off with her, not push past and ignore her." He started pacing about.

Yumi walked up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Calm down Ulrich. I'm sure you're mind's just playing tricks on you."

Ulrich looked past her and saw him approaching them. "Then why is he coming towards us? I don't remember him doing that either." Surely enough, he approached the group as if he knew them for his whole life.

He had this really confused look on his face. "How the hell am I back here again? I've already suffered through this once." Everyone froze up instantly at the end of the sentence. He remembers the time travel? But…how?

Jeremy was the first to regain his composure. "How do you know you've been here before?" he asked. This was completely baffling.

"Depends. Is X.A.N.A. still around?" he asked this out loud.

Aelita was next. "No, he been sealed away for a while."

"Good." Stephan breathed a sigh of relief. With other people walking nearby, he motioned them to gather close. "I'll tell you why. I was the figure that helped you in Lyoko."

**I've noticed a lack of people reading the rest of the story. So I want to now, what turns you away from this fanfiction? I'm open to change in some areas, and others are explained later in the story. I hope you PM me your honest opinions or leave them in a review, and maybe read more of the story. You just might be surprised.**


	2. Explanations

Chapter 2

"But how did you do it?" Jeremy asked. His eyes had only grown wider. Stephan stared at him, as if getting into the Lyoko server was like stealing candy from a baby.

"Well… I found the automotive factory you guys use, saw the freight elevator, and rode it down in curiosity." Stephan walked over and sat between Aelita and Jeremy. "I then found the monitor and started exploring. That's how I found out about Lyoko, the scanners, and even X.A.N.A. Then, again from curiosity, I entered and virtualized myself. X.A.N.A. wasn't on the server at the time, and hadn't yet learned of me. I came back and then downloaded the data of me onto my laptop and headed home."

Aelita leaned forward and put her chin on her open palms. "I think we're more worried about how you got in without a scanner." Stephan leaned back against the bench.

"I will tell you all about that later. For now, we should head for class. Don't want to be late for the first day, again." Stephan stood up and headed for class. "Since it's Friday, try to get some passes and I can show you. It'll make more sense that way." The group nodded, a new plan formed to discover the truth.

"Isn't he just so cool?" Yumi asked the group with her hands up in front of her face.

Ulrich leaned forward off the tree and headed for class. As he walked away, he muttered to himself, "Just amazing."

It was much later in the day as the group gathered near the front gate again. "So you all have the pass cards?" Stephan asked the group.

"Yeah. Jim says he either wants to see us before lights out or by Monday morning." Jeremy said.

Stephan then looked specifically at Yumi. "And your parents are fine with it?"

"Yeah, they even offered to give some of us rides." She gave a friendly smile. Ulrich squinted his eyes at Stephan, as if to figure out his game. But Stephan appeared to not even have an interest. He walked up to his Aunt's Porsche. Opening the door, he sat down in the passenger's seat. He pulled the seat forward as Odd got in back.

"Whoa. Someone's already back here!" He said as Aelita tried to follow.

"Yeah, that's my cousin. You guys would probably know her better as Millie. She normally lives in the dorms because it's easier and it helps her keep connected." The rest piled into the other car, driven by Yumi's father. The vehicles then drove through the inner streets of downtown. It didn't stop there however. Instead, the Porsche hummed all the way out into the countryside. A few miles outside of town, the vehicle stopped in the driveway of a massive house. It appeared to once be a plantation based on size and beautiful apple orchard on the path up to front yard. Five massive white pillars stood from the front porch up to the roof. They helped support the second floor balcony and roof. All the shutters were royal blue and the house white.

As the group came out of their car, Stephan approached them. Millie followed. "Cousin, can I hang out with you guys?"

Stephan got down on one knee and put his hands on her shoulders. "Just give us about 20 minutes, then you can come into my room. Ok?"

Millie smiled and hugged him. "I'll see you later then." She ran away from the group.

Stephan turned back to the group and said, "Follow me. I will show you my 'little invention'." He led the group inside. The main hall had two massive stairwells that ran up the walls onto a hallway in the back. One door to the left and right were closed. The one under the stairwell was left open. He guided them between the stairwells. The door led to a spiral staircase that led to a rather large, open space. Along the wall on the right was a full size bed, a large poster of the Skull with Wings from Avenged Sevenfold, and a portrait depicting the gardens in front of the Palace of Versailles. On the left were several dressers and a 3 angle mirror. On the back wall sat a massive surround system with speakers spread throughout the room. The group stepped in and turned around. On the wall was a massive 50" TV along with a PS4, Xbox 360, PS2, and probably the world's dustiest Wii.

"As you can see, I am a total game freak." Stephan started as they gazed in awe of his tech setup. All the controllers lay next to the system while a bunch of tech sat in front of his TV. "But I don't just play video games, no. Rather, I immerse myself in them. Using the connections I know, I have acquired the latest prototype of the Oculus as well as a pair of Hydras. I have also obtained a prototype Omni-tread and bought a motion capture suit."

"How did you afford that?" Odd asked, his eyes bulging with jealousy.

"Like I said, I have my connections." Stephan looked over towards Yumi, who was pondering the massive portrait of Versailles.

"What's with the portrait?" She asked as she noticed he was looking her direction.

"I love the French countryside. While I'm here, I plan to see the Palace of Versailles, Notre Dame, Bastille, and Bordeaux. If I have the chance, I also want to see Arcy, the place where Joan of Arc first made a name for herself in the Hundred Year War. My favorite era of construction was the gothic era. I love the sprawling cathedrals and immense castles. And I also love the massive stain glass windows."

Aelita looked down from the ceiling as she asked, "Why is your room so large?"

"Back when this was a plantation, the servants within the house were granted the privilege to sleep in the home with the owners, out of the elements."

"And how does any of this relate to you hacking into Lyoko?" Jeremy asked. He pushed his glasses further up on his face, which began to cast a glare from the light in the room.

"All the tech junk is how. I put all that on, along with a gaming headset, and I speak the command to 'download' myself into Lyoko. The computer takes the pre-registered data, heavily encrypts it, and sends it past the security system to a wayward tower. The tower is activated, and I am reassembled in the tower. My clone, or avatar, responds to my movements and acts as if I were in Lyoko myself."

Ulrich gazed over in the direction of the Mo-cap suit. "So you don't feel pain being shot or falling?"

"Very much on the contrary. When I say immerse, I truly mean immerse. Take a look." Stephan raised his shirt slightly to reveal red circles on his torso. The room fell silent. "I hooked the balls on the suit to deliver a light shock whenever I'm hit in the corresponding body part. It keeps me on my toes and further helps connect myself with a character in a game. I don't want him to get hurt because I will be as well. Also, so you actually have something to call me, I want to be known only as S."

Millie knocked on the door at the top of the steps. Stephan looked at the group and they nodded simultaneously, then he called, "Come on down." She walked in saw the group talking amongst themselves. Stephan turned around and called her over. "These guys want to see a demonstration of the game gear I have. Wanna play a round of Tekken 5?"

Millie's eyes lit up. She hadn't really ever felt like this before. She was actually accepted by the big kids. "Yeah, let's go." Stephan popped the game in a plugged up his equipment. Waving his hand around, he selected Devil Jin. She wore the Mo-cap suit and chose Yoshimitsu.

The map was of quiet field in the bright light of a full moon. She charged and kicked her left leg. He blocked it with his right hand and sky kicked her character into the air. Stephan the curled forward. While she was still falling, Stephan whipped back, firing a laser in the game. It blasted her character against the wall. Stephan charged his electric punch and charged forward. She ducked and did a swift spin kick. His character flew into the air. After about half minute fight, Millie charged in to finish the game. Stephan spun his character around as electricity surged around Devil Jin. Just as Millie got close, he released it. His character's fist connected with her character's chin. Her head rested firmly on Jin's fist as she was lifted about 3 feet into the air. Devil Jin threw her off the fist and her character landed on its back. 'Victory goes to… Devil Jin.' Was what the game announcer said.

Yumi and Aelita headed off with Millie to spend the night in her room while the guys prepared in Stephan's room. In the girl's room, Yumi sat on a top bunk to a bunk bed with the other two girls. "Isn't Stephan awesome?" She caught herself saying out loud.

"Yeah," Millie said. "I just like how he actually acknowledges me, unlike the rest of the older kids. You all have only bullied me throughout the years. Sissy especially."

Aelita could sense the sudden deflation of joy in Millie. "That's true. But I'm here to say I'm sorry. We have treated you poorly in the past, but that's because we never had the chance to get to know you. We may have not taken the opportunity, but that changes now." Millie looked up from the bed. A small smile crawled across her face. "Yumi, why did you bring up Stephan anyway? I thought that you were all over Ulrich."

At sound of his name, Millie relaxed and cooed quietly. "I am." Yumi started. She looked down into her open palms. "I just don't know anymore. The two of them have me torn. Ulrich will always be around, but Stephan is just…so much more…"

"Mature?" Aelita finished.

"Yeah, that's it." Yumi said as she glanced over at the wall to keep the other's from seeing her. Tears streamed down her face. "I just don't know anymore." She muttered.

**Meanwhile... **

Stephan whipped out his high-powered laptop while the others got out sleeping bags. "In all seriousness, I've been using the connection I have to the super-calculator to indirectly watch X.A.N.A.'s movements. While we thought he was doing nothing, it was actually quite the opposite."

"How many nuclear power plants did he take over?" Ulrich said sarcastically.

"Six."

"Really!" Ulrich exclaimed. Both Jeremy and Odd stopped cold in their tracks.

"No. In fact, he hasn't done anything that is deadly to us right now. Instead, he was researching something on Google. He even was drawing power from it. I can't tell what exactly he was looking for, but it can't be any good to us."

"I guess next time we're in Lyoko, we should look for anything odd. Strange would be a better word." Jeremy said as he flattened out his sleeping bag on the floor. Odd, who had been silent the whole time, looked up at Ulrich, and stated that which should not have been said.

With a smirk, he said, "Looks like Yumi is buddying up to Stephan. Looks like you got competition." He then let out a round of his nasally laugh. Again, Ulrich's eyes darted over towards Stephan. Once again, Stephan appeared to not even be taken back by such an outburst. Then, upon closer inspection, his mouth had formed a smile. A silent cry of victory.

Ulrich got into the bag and 'fluffed' the pillow a couple times with his fist before going to bed.

Around 2:30 in the morning, Stephan was having a dream. He was in a completely dark space. Only a single spotlight from seemingly nowhere shined down on him. He began to take a few steps forward, when an image flashed through his head. Down on one knee, he struggled to remember it. All he could really see was of him with a girl. She wore a red long sleeve shirt under a black T-shirt. She also wore glasses. Walking a little bit further, another came to him, much clearer this time. It was of a green army cap sitting in a small tuft of grass. Ulrich was leaning over it, tears free-falling from his face. It seemed important to him, but not sure why.

With each set of steps came a new image, three more in total. The first was of the factory, the roof was in pieces, with a large, black, worm-like creature rearing its ugly head into the air. The next was of a human sized creature with two short legs and two extremely long legs that it used to move with great dexterity. Each long arm was easily as long as the rest of the body. One was jabbed into the ground. The other held a person. They were kicking their legs and screaming. The last one was of a severed leg lying on gold colored metal. Nothing more.

At this point, he felt a sudden jolt on his shoulder. His eyes flew open. He jumped back as Ulrich looked directly into his eyes. Whispering, he asked, "What's wrong with you?"

"I know what you're planning, so you can just stop."

"Would you mind telling me what it is I'm planning again?"

Raising his finger to Stephan's face and his voice to a low hiss, he said, "Don't you play dumb with me." He was wiggling his finger. "I know you're trying to win over Yumi, but it won't work."

Stephan simply raised his left hand to Ulrich's finger and pushed it down from his face. "Why don't you stop and think for a couple minutes. I'm not even interested in Yumi. There is another I like. Her name is Emily. She's in your grade."

"So you aren't trying to win her over and make me look like a fool?"

"No, you took care of that last part yourself. Girls are just attracted to me. As a little kid, I made better friends with the girls than the boys, because that just liked me and I them. I was actually hoping to get away from that after coming to a more sophisticated country."

Ulrich then stuck out his hand. "Dude, I'm sorry for how I acted. I just really thought what I thought. I probably wasn't a very good example for my country."

"Never mind that." Stephan reached out and shook his hand. "Now get back to bed so we can have breakfast later." Stephan watched as Ulrich stepped over Odd and walked over to his sleeping bag. At the sound of the bag rustling, Stephan rolled back over and closed his eyes. Those five images were still buried deep in his head, reappearing many times in his dreams.

Odd was the first one to wake up. He looked around the room with eyes wide open. He saw Jeremy and Ulrich, but not Stephan. "Ulrich. Jeremy. Get up guys." He said as he got out of his bag and rolled it up. As the others got up out of their bags, he said, "Stephan's already upstairs." The rest packed up their gear and headed out. Odd glanced back at the portrait. "I never knew he would have soft side for France."

When they got up the steps, they smelled something. Smelled something delicious. They walked around the corner to find the girls sitting on one side of the table. It was covered with pancakes, fried sausage, bacon, and over easy eggs. Sitting at the head of the table was Stephan, now wearing the same shoes, new blue jeans with a chain in one of the pockets, and a white undershirt with a red hoodie that spelled out BFMV. His aunt was nowhere in sight.

After putting his fork down and swallowing his syrup covered pancakes, he looked up at them. "So you're awake then. Come eat what I've cooked."

"Oh boy! Eats!" yelled Odd. He immediately ran over and started scooping things onto his plate. Ulrich and Jeremy followed suit.

As Odd gobbled down the banquet Stephan fixed, Jeremy asked, "So Stephan. You cooked all of this?"

"Oh yeah. I whipped this up only a few minutes ago. Careful though. It might still be hot." He pointed in Odd's direction. Odd had quickly switched from eating like a hound to drinking cold milk. "It's still freshly cooked."

"Man I almost forgot what a hot meal even tasted like." Ulrich said as he took a bite of sausage with maple syrup on it.

"I know." Said Millie. "We came down while he was still fixing it up."

Aelita chimed in, "It smelled like a mound of deliciousness covered in the glaze of satisfaction."

"Yeah. He's really good at it too." Yumi said as she lifted a fork of bacon and egg up to eye level.

"Why didn't you wake us up?" Odd said in one of the short intervals of him eating. He only stopped to breathe and the give a comment.

"I didn't want to disturb you. It sounded like you could use some more rest. Snoring is a sign of a weak sleep pattern." Odd looked at himself and blushed a little bit from embarrassment. Millie finished and placed her plate on the counter. She walked off towards what used to be her room.

Stephan motioned the group to lean in. In a whisper, he quickly updated the girls on what he told the guys last night. As he began to lean back, his computer bleeped. He looked back and went over to grab it. Moving quickly, he grabbed the computer, brought it back to the table, and sat down. The others leaned in to catch a view of the opening lid. Jeremy pushed his glasses up to his face. "Whoa, is that a scanner for towers?"

"No, it is made to detect anomalies in the Lyoko coding. Apparently, X.A.N.A. has entered in a program for a new enemy. He even has one spawned in Lyoko right now. He appears to be testing out, because the code is being fine-tuned."

"What do we do?" Yumi asked as she carried her plate over to the kitchen counter.

"Well, we could destroy it before it is fine-tuned. And is Jeremy has what it takes, we might even be able to recode it to work for us."

"Sounds like a plan." Ulrich said as he finished. Within minutes, everyone was done eating and on their way to the scanners. Stephan went back into the basement and tapped into the factory's cameras and waited for them to arrive. About thirty minutes later, the rest of the crew was in the scanners with Jeremy already searching for the program. Stephan put all the gear on and spoke the command, "Download to Lyoko."

Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita all stood near the tower glowing black as they waited on Stephan. Within a few seconds, out came S. Carrying his blade, he motioned the direction the new monster was in. The group ran across the desert plateau and moved across several plates. Suddenly, they heard a loud, thunderous stomp. Then another.

S used the hook to grapple onto a rock ledge. He climbed up to the top and peered over the ledge. What he saw frightened him greatly. Being an Anime junkie, he knew exactly the reference this came from. Standing 5 meters tall was a shadow black, humanoid figure. It had no real other definitive features to show a gender. It had no face. An upside down Lyoko symbol was painted across the back of its neck. It's open hand swept across a canyon wall. It swiftly closed around a Tarantula that was standing on two legs, to simulate a human. It lifted it high above its head. Although it had no mouth, a massive, dark red hole opened where one would be. Data flowed around inside of it as it dropped the Tarantula into its maw. Instinctively, it whipped its head back, violently swallowing the monster in its mouth.

Growing incredibly impatient, Jeremy said over the COM, "What do you see?"

Eyes wide with fear, knees shaking with anxiety, and teeth clenched with animosity, he stated simply, "A **Titan…**"


	3. Bright Love and Dark Secrets

Chapter 3

"A what?" Ulrich called up to Stephan.

He skidded down the hill and lifted his finger to his mouth. In a whisper he spoke, "In this anime I watch, Attack on Titan, these beasts wander the earth with one goal. Eat…all…humans." Odd stuck his tongue out in disgust. "They are 3 meters tall at shortest, and normally stop at 15 meters. Jeremy? Have you found the program yet?"

"Yeah but it's locked up. I can duplicate it and reprogram the copy though."

Yumi stepped forward and said, "What do you mean _normally_ stop at 15 meters? That's already over 45 feet tall." The rest of the group nodded in agreement. Stephan breathed a sigh of anxiety.

"One Titan towered over the rest. He was known as the Colossal Titan and stood at just over 50 meters tall. His kick alone devastated the 50 meter tall, 10 meter thick wall that protected the people for 100 years. They are also virtually invincible. Continuous cannon fire would only slowdown large Titans and maybe kill a 3-5 meter tall one. Plus, their flesh regenerates, quickly."

"How do we stop them then?" Aelita hissed out in both fear and impatience.

"One weak spot exists on their entire bodies. The back of their neck is where a bridge between the brain and spinal cord exists. Along with the main artery. Striking deep enough would sever both and kill the Titan. I'm the only one properly equipped to fight this thing. I can work on a program that would get your gear later. Just peek around the corner and you will see what I'm talking about."

The rest of the Lyoko warriors peeked around the corner to bear witness to the great beast ready to kill them all. A Crab was running between its feet. Swiftly like a gymnast, it jumped into the air and shifted all its weight onto one leg. As the first leg impacted the ground, the Crab disappeared beneath the foot as a spider web of cracks emanated from the impact crater made by the single jump. The cracks sprawled out at least a meter in every direction. It then immediately whipped its head around towards them. The group ducked behind the rock. Odd breathed heavily with fear as he stammered out, "You think he s-saw us?"

Stephan looked solemnly at them, "That doesn't matter. It can sense human life and is automatically attracted to large clusters of people." He lifted his hand and pointed up. A fist sized drop of digital saliva landed next to his foot. Above them was the Titan leaned over the rock with his dark maw open. "Fortunately, they aren't very intelligent or creative." His hook shot into a rock as he rocketed out from under it. At that moment, it pile its whole face into the ground. It spat out dust and dirt and swung his head towards the rest. A deep roar emanated from it as an open hand swung towards them. It wrapped tightly around Yumi and lifted her high into the air. As she kicked her legs high in the air, the horrid image popped back into Stephan's mind. It didn't quite fit, but it was close enough to trigger it. This beast was too tall.

The others only stared on in awestruck fear. Ulrich's knees wobbled, Aelita was shivering, and Odd teeth were clenched. Stephan's gut twisted into a knot as graphic visions of the Anime flashed through his head. His hook shot into the back of the Titan's neck. Using momentum, he launched himself into the air. As he whipped by, the blade went through the center of the target. The Titan dropped Yumi and launched its arms back. Catching Stephan, the hand closed tightly around him. The looked on with a smile, then threw him on the ground. A pillar of dust shot into the air as it lifted one leg. Using full force, it literally stomped Stephan into the ground.

"S!" Aelita screamed out as his wireframe faded out. It quickly turned and chased after the rest. Not knowing what to do, they all ran together.

Suddenly, Jeremy's voice erupted over the speaker. "Guys I did it! Get ready for your very own Titan."

Odd managed to say, "Good job Einstein, but we're about to get creamed." Jeremy quickly typed in the command to spawn allied Titan, but nothing happened.

"What's wrong with this thing?"

Back in Lyoko, as they were fleeing, Yumi threw her fans as a distraction. On the way back though, one nicked Odd in the space between his thumb and forefinger. Odd grabbed his hand and groaned in pain. Then the groan turned to a scream. Yumi turned back to see something that just looked painful. Odd was on his knees as blue wireframe spiraled out of his wound to form a giant hand. The Titan stepped over him as if he didn't exist.

Within seconds, the hand turned into an arm, then a torso, then legs, and finally, wireframe built a neck around Odd and a head above him. Solidifying from bottom to top, it revealed a bright white, human like figure. Painted across its face was a right side-up, aqua Lyoko symbol. It was easily twice as tall as X.A.N.A.'s. Its hand grabbed the other's head and twisted it around with force. The other clenched fist impacted its face, multiple times. It then pinned it to the ground with one leg and faced its head towards the other leg. It reared back and kicked with all its force. The smaller Titan's head reacted like a golf ball on a tee, flying into the distance as the body glowed red, then exploded like any other monster.

"Woo hoo! Good job Odd!" Yumi yelled and waved her hands. He only lifted his head slightly and started walking towards Yumi. Then, he start to jog and finally started running at full speed. "Odd? Hello? What do you think you're doing?" By the time she realize what was happening, it was too late to turn and run. She tried anyway. With her back turned to him, he reared back the leg already in the air, and charged it forward. The kick sent her flying over the entire Desert zone as she de-virtualized.

Ulrich silently lifted his blade as Odd returned to a standing position. Then, without warning, an open palm rocketed down towards the two. "Sprint!" Ulrich yelled as a flash of light flew behind him. He darted out from under the impact, but forgot Aelita. "Oh no!" he yelled as he heard the impact. He turned around to see a cloud of dust curling around his arm. As his fist left, some dust trailed out between his fingers. Aelita was clenched in his hand. His mouth slowly opened, revealing blue data rather than a deep red. His fist slowly came closer to his open mouth. Aelita was easily out cold, her eyes closed and body limp. Ulrich sprinted up his leg. He jumped into the air and yelled, "Triplicate!" Two clones shot out, each landing on a shoulder. "Strike!" He yelled as he slashed down.

The first wound exposed Odd's body. The other two struck horizontally. The higher one exposed his arms while the lower one finished off the creature. Ulrich landed on the ground behind the Titan. The other two grabbed onto Odd and tried to pull him out. His body was completely unresponsive. The arm the wireframe started from was buried in semi-solid data that held tight to it. One lifted its sword and slashed the data, leaving scars all over his hand. From the moment he was freed, the Titan fell limp, collapsing to its knees and dropping Aelita. The three of them dropped onto the ground safely. Aelita however was falling head first. The first Ulrich on the ground darted between the legs and caught Aelita. However, the monster was still about to fall on them. Without thought, Ulrich threw Aelita one direction and ran the other. Before he could escape, he was crushed under the collapsing Titan.

Aileta's eyes fluttered open in time to see Ulrich under the massive chest of the Titan. "Not Ulrich too!"

She closed her eyes and started to cry. She could imagine the pain everyone had gone through to save her. She didn't think she deserved the pampering. They were all in serious pain due to her and her alone. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She didn't even react. "Why are ya crying?" a familiar voice said. She turned to see Ulrich's smiling face.

"B-b-but I just saw you be de-virtualized." She said in exasperation.

"No, you saw a clone be demolished." The other one flashed his teeth at her in a smile before disappearing.

"But why did Odd turn on us like that?" Aelita answered. Jeremy opened his mouth to answer, when a familiar voice crackled over the feed.

"It's just as I feared. In the Anime, it was quickly discovered that the user had to have a greater willpower than the natural instinct of the Titan." Stephan said. "I'm sure Odd was just getting revenge on Yumi for hitting him with the fan, but he tempted the Titan's natural urges. It just took over."

"How are you even talking to us?" Ulrich asked, having taken in the information, yet confused.

"I got my headset plugged in sitting in a chair. You guys are lucky. You didn't get hit by that thing. Yumi is probably just having a lingering pain, but I was hooked up electronically. When I was hit, I was shocked all over my body. You know the tingly feeling you get when you make your arm or leg go numb? Well imagine that all over your body. I can't even walk right now."

As the others began to de-virtualize, Stephan took off his headset. "Should I tell them? I know I can't keep this to myself though." After thinking for a few minutes, he stated, "Let it be my burden to carry for now."

Meanwhile:

In the factory, the pods opened up as Ulrich and Aelita stepped out. Odd stumbled out like a drunk and struggled to stay on his feet. He felt an itch on his forehead and itched it. "Ahh, still tender." He said as the friendly fire wound burned. He brought it down to look at it and yelped. The group surrounded him as they gazed on at his hand. Jaws dropped. Aelita grabbed his hand and started to rub it as Odd continued to just stare on, dumbfounded beyond speech. Scars from where the wireframe fused with his hand remained all over it.

Jeremy was first to regain his composure. "How is that even possible?"

Stephan's voice crackled over the intercom. "I don't know. But it can't be a good sign. I saw it through the cameras I set up in the factory. I just advise that you try to hide that from other people."

"Agreed." Ulrich said.

"We don't need more attention." Yumi said.

Stephan spoke again. "I can finally walk again. Now if you don't mind, I have a date I need to get to. After I get back I will work on the anti-Titan gear." He dropped the headset without waiting for a response. Getting up, he walked up the stairs and into the living room, where his Aunt was sitting. Having it already planned, she handed him the keys. He then went outside to the Porsche. The car darted out of the lot and down the road. It glided through the streets and up to the entrance to Kadic Academy.

Standing under the gate was a girl he had taken a liking to. She had glasses, dark long hair, a black T-shirt over a red undershirt, jeans, and red/black tennis shoes. Her voice was sweet. She was smart, funny, and cute. Her name was Emily. Ulrich would know her whether the rest did or not. They had started talking almost immediately after he approached her. Being a grade under him, she had only heard rumors. Like the rest of the girls, she fell hopelessly in love with the rumored appearance of him. During lunch, she saw him surrounded with Ulrich's gang, which kind of scared her off. She just didn't understand that group, or why Ulrich insisted on hanging with them. She did notice that the table was unusually surrounded. People normally stayed away from the group, but girls had swamped the general area, just to get a peek at him.

That was when she saw the rumors were true. His dark hair _did _curl over one eye, his beautiful aqua eyes. His chiseled features defined him amongst the group. His fashion showed his was a dark, broody type, like Ulrich. She heard his voice, the smooth tenor echoed through her heart. His arms were somewhat muscled, but not to the point of having been a weights junkie. Then, he looked up and their eyes met. He smiled at her, revealing his shining white teeth. Then she lost it, literally. She actually dropped her tray on the floor and ran off, giddy like a little girl.

He approached her after lunch. Walking up to her, she blushed with both embarrassment and delight. "I saw you in the lunchroom." He started.

"Yeah… uh… about that." She started. But Stephan grabbed her hands, lifting them up to eye level.

"Your hands, they're so soft and pretty. But your face is many more times beautiful." She giggled and blushed even more.

"M-my name's Emily."

"I would be Stephan." He bowed in front of her. "Would you like to go to a movie tomorrow?"

"Yes!" she said excitedly. "I mean… I would like that. Your choice."

That was how they met, and now, her two day dream of going out with the new kid was coming to life. She got in and they drove off to a scary movie. The entire time, she was holding onto his arm. Every time a jump scare appeared, she would scoot closer to him, and he would give a warm smile. As they were exiting the movie, she had her arms around his waist and he had one arm on her shoulder. "That was a pretty scary movie." Emily admitted. "Sorry I held on so tightly."

"It's alright. In fact, I felt better having you by my side." Emily then got on her tippy-toes and kissed Stephan on the cheek. He then dropped her off the school, where his friends were waiting for him.

As Emily headed off for her dorm, Odd walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "So, how did it go?"

"It went great. I feel like we're really connecting on a deeper level. Anything happen while I was gone?"

"Not really." Ulrich said as he approached Yumi. "Except when we were in gym class, Jim was teaching us how to do a front flip in gymnastics."

"I bet that went well." Stephan said. He looked directly at Ulrich, who stood next to Yumi, and winked.

Jeremy smiled wide, remembering the show Jim had put on for them. "Ya see, since we didn't have anything to do today. We decided to ask Jim if he would mind training us a little bit. So he showed us one advanced technique in gymnastics,"

"Only one?" Stephan said, his voice full of curiosity.

Aelita couldn't hold herself back anymore and erupted in light-hearted laughter. At the same time, Yumi spoke out loud as he walked by, "Let's just say that his font flip ended as more of a front flop. He jumped forward off the ramp, but only spun halfway and landed on his butt. He ended up heading for the infirmary with a mild case of soreness." She snickered a little bit as she walked down the sidewalk towards home. It was easily late in the day, about 7:00 at night.

"That sounds pretty great. Before you leave though, I want to tell you that I got anti-Titan gear that I've been working on. It should be ready for testing tomorrow if you want to meet at the factory."

"Sounds good, Stephan. We'll be waiting for you in Lyoko then. Where should we gather up at?" Jeremy stated while Ulrich and Odd yawned.

"It will be easiest to test the gear in the forest zone." Stephan then roared the engine once and left for his home.

Odd stretched his arms out and started heading for the dorms himself. "I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow. A hero like me needs his beauty sleep after all."

The other three turned and ran off towards him as Aelita said, "You should try getting some more if that's the case."

**The next day… **yet another scanner alert sounded off, causing Jeremy to jolt out of bed. "You've got to be kidding me. Can't X.A.N.A. take a rest for more than a weekend?" He approached his computer, and saw the alert was coming from the Forest sector. "Surely Stephan isn't waiting for us already." He got his red shirt and cargo pants on. Walking out into the hallway, he looked down it. Ulrich and Odd were rubbing their eyes and getting ready for the day. "Sorry to be the buzzkill, but we got an attack."

Odd yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Does he know what time it is in the morning?"

Ulrich raised an eyebrow before speaking. "Odd, you do know that we've almost missed breakfast, right?" Odd put his hands to his cheeks and screamed. "What's wrong?" He said.

"All that food, and I won't even get a bite." Odd ran back into his room. Within a couple minutes, he reappeared fully dressed and with Ulrich's outfit in his hands. "Get dressed or get out of the way." He said as he dashed between the two and down the steps.

"What a nutcase." Jeremy said as Ulrich disappeared into the bathroom to change. A few minutes later, he reappeared and walked down the hall with Jeremy and grab some breakfast.

When they opened the door, they immediately saw small scraps of food in the air. One random splotch of gravy even hit Ulrich right between the eyes. Jeremy sat down next to Odd, who was the source of the disturbance, and Ulrich sat across from Odd. Aelita was looking down at her food. Yumi was eating like a proper person, but he didn't see Stephan. With a hint of irritation in his movements, he took a finger, wiped it off his forehead and flicked it all over Odd's face. He stopped eating only long enough to get the stuff off his face and into his mouth. Looking on in disgust, Jeremy looked through the group. He saw Aelita, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, but no Stephan. "Well gang, unless Odd already told you, we have a X.A.N.A. alert."

Aelita looked up. "Odd's not very good with communication when he's hungry." Her voice was heavily latticed with both boredom and suspicion.

"Is something wrong?" Yumi asked as she put her fork down on her tray. However, she didn't make contact with any of her food. "What the?" She said as she looked down at her tray. It was empty. She looked up at Odd. "Odd! Why did you do that?"

"Sorry Yumi. I'm not very communicative when I'm hungry. I was going to ask, then it just happened." He smiled his shiny white toothed grin. The group got up so that they could head for the factory.

As they left the building, Aelita opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Jeremy. "You noticed that Stephan hasn't showed up to school yet? I don't really feel like we can trust him yet."

"It's a little late for that Einstein." Ulrich said as he pulled up the rear.

Odd's ears perked up as his head jerked back. "I thought I just heard screeching tires."

"You're just delusional Odd. Like the idea of you getting away with stealing my breakfast." Yumi said as she slowed down to walk by Ulrich. That undeniable sound screeched out again, louder. All their heads jerked towards the iron front gate to the school. The white Porsche Carrera of Stephan's whipped around the corner about two blocks away from the school.

"Jeez, it's just one tardy. It won't kill him to slow down." Jeremy said as he turned back towards the woods on campus. "The tower's in the forest zone. We'll probably just deal with it during lunch. I'm not seeing any signs of an attack yet." The car whipped around and stopped directly in front of the entrance. Stephan got out and ran across campus towards them.

He stopped directly in front of them. He was panting while he tried to regain his breath. Someone opened their mouth to speak, but he raised his index finger to silence them. Finally standing straight again, he started, "Activated tower…pant, pant…ice district…need to go now. X.A.N.A. is on the attack right now."

Aelita stepped forward. "What do you mean ice district? You mean in the forest region?"

Stephan lifted an eyebrow. "Weird. Coincidences are abound. I can't believe it happened to go off."

"What do you mean? I'm a great programmer." Jeremy said this, a fire in his eyes.

"That wouldn't matter considered I hacked it. It was reconfigured to pick up JB on radio to mess with you." Stephan said this as he took a ring out of his pocket. It was a silver band with a sapphire gem on it cut out like the X.A.N.A. symbol.

"Why would you do that!?" The group exclaimed in near unison.

"Because that was my first orders when I got here." Stephan fiddled with the ring in his fingers. It was a beautiful ring, except for that accursed symbol.

Aelita's eyes widened with fear as if she was remembering something from a dream. "He did it because-" she tried to finish, but a loud, thunderous sound erupted from around the corner Stephan had sped around with his car. The entire group turned their heads towards the sound they had heard.

"An earthquake?" Ulrich asked as another sounded off. Then another, and finally, one, immense leg stomped into the ground around the corner. It was pinkish purple in color and was incredibly ripped. The next step revealed the entire monster. Standing at 15 meters tall, was a real, live Titan. It's twisted grimace formed a Jeff the Killer smile as it began to run down the street after them.

"I guess you deserve an explanation." Stephan said as he tossed the ring in the air and caught it. "You see, metaphorically speaking of course, I am… how can I say this? Well…um, I'm the son of X.A.N.A. and that Titan over there is X.A.N.A's attack strategy to finally get rid of you, which had regrettably started with me."


	4. The Decision to Fight

Chapter 4

**Ok, stuff is going to get pretty dark. So one suggestion to those that don't want to think of me as some kind of freak or possible psychopath, follow the suggestions in the story to skip a chunk of 'stuff' that may disturb you. This is a fair warning, so if you read it and think otherwise, don't post a review about it. The liabilities to reading it are on you.**

The group only looked on in horror. Not only at the massive beast ready to destroy the city just to get them, but also at the person who was effectively X.A.N.A.'s son. "I think I speak for everyone when I say that you are out of the group."

Now Stephan was the one looking surprised. "Why? I've done nothing but help you and humanity. Is this how I am to be treated by everyone?"

Aelita stood next to Jeremy and said, "You're too great of a liability to our mission." Stephan only stared on in disbelief. Seconds ago, these people were standing by him, believing in him. He felt so deeply betrayed.

Ulrich and Yumi both stepped back. "Sorry, but we just can't trust you anymore." Yumi said. Ulrich nodded his head in agreement, like a loyal puppy.

Odd only took a half step back, and stayed silent. Stephan could see his pupils wiggling with disbelief, both at the ugly truth and the way Jeremy reacted. The group turned around and started to run towards the woods. "So that's how it's gonna be then? Just throw me away? Now I'm the one wondering who the heartless computer is." With that, the entire group stopped in their tracks.

The Titan stomp exploded in violent motion in front of them. The cruel grimace stared down at them. It looked both angry and happy to see them at the same time. It began to lean over to grab one of them. "Run!" Odd yelled as the group sprinted back towards the campus.

"Hurry! We can hide between the dorms and main building!" Ulrich yelled as they darted into the thin space between structures. Stephan followed close behind them. As they ran towards the other side of the alleyway, an immense fist impacted the ground in front of them, blocking the exit. Another one slammed into the ground behind them. They had effectively surrounded themselves. With no window to crawl through or door to break down, things looked bad for the group.

"I'll fight these things, you just run away when you get the chance." Stephan said as he again twiddled the ring in his fingers.

"And how do you plan to do that?" Jeremy said with sarcasm in his voice. Stephan only glanced his way and put the ring on his finger. A wireframe built around him in the shape of his Lyoko garb. It then filled in over his current get up. The blade even spawned in his hands.

"Since I'm a computer program, I can 'mod' myself like any video gamer does with his character." He spun the blade in his hand once. "Know I do this not for you, Jeremy Belpois, or any of the people that have betrayed me in this life." The Titan leaned closer in, his maw wide open with anticipation. "I fight to protect the one person that cares whether I live or die. Emily." He took another glance back at the rest of them. Most of them held unforgiving, skeptical faces. Odd however, took what Stephan said to heart, he could see it in his eyes. Then they heard a low rumble.

**Meanwhile…** Emily was sitting in Mrs. Hertz class when Jim came up to the entrance. He had been running, as he was panting heavily. "You need to see this." He exclaimed loudly.

"The only thing you need to see is your manners Jim." Mrs. Hertz spoke as she turned back to her class.

"Just look out the window!" Jim yelled as he ran across the room. Mrs. Hertz began to walk to the window as well.

"I don't know what you think you're doing but…" Her voice trailed off as her jaw dropped. The rest of the children gathered at the windows. From the science building, they could see clear over the track and straight at the dorm buildings. They could clearly see some kind of human like figure standing over the space between dorm buildings. It was clearly focused on something, she just couldn't tell what from her angle.

"Look! A helicopter." Nicholas said as he turned his head to the right. Simultaneously, everyone's head turned to watch an army controlled Apache chopper fly over the school grounds and head straight for the monster, whose back was turned to it at the time. The front attached chain gun rippled bullets into its back, quickly rising towards the nape of its neck. One hand rocketed around and swatted the chopper out of the sky like it was a gnat in someone's face. The truck sized hand slammed into the directional rotor in the back, tearing off half of the back of the chopper. Quickly spinning out of control, it lost altitude at an extreme rate. Impacting the roof at 40 mph minimum, it grinded across the rooftop to a halt. The pilots climbed out unharmed. But the beast quickly fixed that.

It grabbed up the two men like a kid would grab action figures. Lifting the two them to eye level, the monster began to open its mouth. Then, like a shadow, a black figure rose into air on a hook. The hook was then whipped back out and thrown into the roof on the other side of the monster. Using their own momentum, the figure rocketed along the nape of the monster's neck, slicing it wide open. Steam poured out of the wound as the monster fell limp against the dorms. The figure landed on the roof as the pilots wormed out of the grasp of the monster and ran along the roof. "If only that figure was Stephan. That would be so cool."

**Back on the grounds…** Stephan stepped onto the ledge and glared out over the city. Odd looked back up at him. He couldn't help but feel bad. The son of his greatest enemy or not, he was completely abandoned and was still fighting to protect the scraps of a life he had left. The rest of the group was at the edge of the woods when Jeremy called out, "Hurry up Odd!"

"I'm staying to fight." He called back. When he looked back up at the roof, Stephan was missing. He looked back down to see Stephan standing right in front of him. "Holy crap! Don't do that." Odd said as he jumped back a few feet.

"Sorry, but I couldn't help but notice your eyes, the way you looked at me. We've found familiar ground, haven't we?"

"What do you mean by that?" Odd said as he scratched his head.

"You long for the one girl in your life that truly makes you happy, Samantha Knight. But you are too nervous to ask her, so you try to fill the void with all these other girls. You want to be accepted by something, like me. That's why you're bond with the other Lyoko warriors is so tight. They accept you for who you are. All I wanted was to feel the same. But not even they would accept me. I want to be cared for because of who I am, not because how I look. You feel that too, don't you?" Stephan explained.

"Y-yeah. How did you know that?" Odd said as he took a step back.

"Because I feel the same way."

"So how can I help?" He said as he looked out into the streets, Semi sized foot prints were imprinted on the ground from where it had ran at them.

"The scars on your hand are where you can help. If my calculations are correct, then the scars showed that the power carried over into the real world. Bite yourself and make sure you have a clear goal in mind. After that, we can begin." Stephan looked up to the skies and closed his eyes.

Odd looked down at his scarred hand. He brought his hand close to his face and screamed the phrase, "I will protect the people from the terror of X.A.N.A.!" He then chomped down on his hand. Blood began to dribble out of his mouth as he whipped his hand back. A flash of lightning erupted as steam was concentrated so rapidly that the humidity in the near area spiked. It had effectively created a very isolated dry lightning storm.

Odd's Titan stood tall, at least 12 meters. It was incredibly ripped to show how pumped he was to tear into some other Titans. His burning desire to protect the world greatly outmatched the will of the Titan. Stephan hooked into Odd's upper body and flew into the air. Landing on his left shoulder, he yelled into Odd's ear, "To the factory! That's where they're coming from!"

**In the woods…** Ulrich lifted the heavy manhole and let the others climb in first. He looked back at Odd, talking with Stephan. "I can't believe you would betray us like that." Ulrich muttered to himself before following Yumi down and covering the manhole.

Grabbing a skateboard, he rode after the rest through the familiar tunnel system. He jumped and pulled an Ollie over the gap. He then came to a screaming halt in front of the manhole just in front of the bridge. Volunteering to go first, he climbed up and slowly lifted the manhole. What he saw nearly made his vomit from a sudden onset of nausea. At least 10 more of the monsters were walking the factory. A massive hole in the roof left the metal roofing bent towards the sky. The bridge looked weak, like one had tried to test the strength of the bridge beforehand. After describing the horrid scene, he climbed out and began to sprint for the other side, followed by Jeremy, Aelita, and Yumi.

One titan with dark brown hair spotted them and began to run towards the bridge. Ulrich looked out at the halfway point to the see the monster charging at the bridge. He kept running, as did Aelita and Jeremy. When Yumi reached the halfway point though, the monster charged straight through the first half of the bridge, making her stop in her tracks with fear. Turning around, she came face to face with a Titan who glared at her greedily with teeth bared.

A black flash then swept behind the beast. Steam erupted like a pressurized pipe had just busted open. Without a change of expression, it dropped down and slammed into the shallow water under the bridge. Another Titan sprinted towards the bridge, but strangely familiar looking one stepped out in front of it. Something seemed oddly reminiscent about this one. It had long, blonde hair that hung loosely with strands of purple throughout it. "Odd?" She asked questionably, as she realized that was his hairstyle when he first became roommates with Ulrich.

As the Titan turned around to recognize her, Ulrich screamed out, "Yumi, come on already." She turned and started to run over the rest of the bridge. The Titan that looked like Odd before he changed his hairstyle didn't turn back in time, and was caught by surprise. Launched off his feet, he could only fly through the and destroy the other portion of the bridge just in front of Yumi. Trapped on a piece of bridge in the middle, Yumi nearly broke down into tears there on the spot. As she lifted her head away from her hands, a fourth Titan appeared in front of her.

Odd looked at Yumi, was stepping back with fear towards the other ledge. He grabbed the head of the Titan holding onto him and slammed his into its. Steam rolled off both their faces as the other let go and fell off to one side. He stood quickly and came up behind Yumi. He clapped his hands together on the sides of its face. The cheeks of the other one disappeared into steam, revealing a jagged skull with horrid molars ready to grind bones to dust. Dazed, it began to fall onto the bridge. Yumi covered her eyes as she called out her signature scream. A swift hand wrapped around her gently and pulled her into the air.

Peering through her fingers, she saw she was high in the air. She saw metal give way like melting plastic, support wires snapping like twine, and concrete falling apart like dry dirt clumps. She looked at what held her so tightly. She saw the eyes of Odd in the Titan holding her. He bent on one knee and released her onto the ground. At that moment, her phone rang.

"Yumi, if you can still hear me, I'm sorry we left you behind." Jeremy said solemnly over the phone.

"Jeremy, I'm still here. Both Stephan and Odd saved my life."

"Hmm… I wonder what he's up to now?" Jeremy said, talking about Stephan.

Yumi walked over towards the elevator as the door opened up. "Yeah, whatever. I'm in the elevator now."

"Good, we could use some help in Lyoko. Aelita is keeping a Titan busy while Ulrich is duking it out with William. The Scyphozoa was attacking the Skidbladnir, but I overloaded the shields to shock it away from it. We should hurry before it can get back.

"Got it." Yumi said as she placed the phone in her pocket. The elevator started to go down then.

**In Lyoko...** Ulrich's twin blades impacted the massive great sword as it came within inches of slicing him in two. Every step forward for William was two back for Ulrich on the slippery ice. To think that Stephan had been right about the tower in ice district, let alone that he had hacked the system. He looked beyond William to see Aelita energy blasting the Titan to keep it stunned.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep this up." Aelita said to both Ulrich and Jeremy.

"Same here." Ulrich said as he ducked under a sword swinging for his throat.

"Don't worry, Yumi's on her way right now." He said as he continued typing away on the monitor. "I have to protect the Skid, or it's good bye finishing off X.A.N.A."

Ulrich twisted around and swept William's legs. He fell on the ground, but quickly shot up into the air. Bringing his sword down, a shockwave forced Ulrich to jump back up. As he came down, William's heel impacted the chest of Ulrich, launching him through the air. Landing on his feet, he skidded to a stop just on the edge of the region. "How about we trade real quick?" Ulrich yelled at Aelita.

Without a word, she flew high into the air and shot a field at William. Impacting his back, he fell forward onto one knee. "Super sprint!" Ulrich yelled as he shot out past William. He turned towards him and grunted. Ulrich again ran up a leg. The Titan swatted at him, but he jumped onto the arm and ran up to the neck of the beast. Twirling both blades out and then pointing them to the right, he sprinted across the back of the Titan's neck, leaving two immense gashes that poured out light. As he landed, something shot him in the side, twice.

"Ulrich!" Jeremy yelled. "You've lost forty life points. A tarantula is on top of an iceberg."

Ulrich's expression turned to anger. "Well where's Yumi?"

"I'm calling her again right now."

Yumi jolted as her phone rang. Picking it up, she answered swiftly. "Hello? Yeah Jeremy I'm in the elevator but it's stopped." Then a sudden jolt jerked the phone out of her hand. The elevator started going back up at extreme speeds. The thing was bouncing off the wall almost constantly. She stumbled around and almost stepped on her phone. She bent over to try and pick it up when it slammed through the metallic framework on the top floor of the factory. She shot into the air and landed on her butt, and also on her phone. "What's happening?" She said as the elevator tipped forward.

**Stop here ****if you want to follow suggestion made at beginning of chapter**

One giant finger stabbed through the sheet metal like it was plastic. It then peeled it all back. A mouth opened up and covered the entire entrance as the Titan tipped its head back. Yumi grabbed onto the button panel for dear life. In its mouth was pure darkness. A massive, maroon tongue stabbed out towards her.

Stephan just sliced through another Titan when he saw the elevator in yet another Titan's mouth. "Isn't this a bit overkill?!" He asked himself as he turned back towards Odd. One Titan had one arm while another one was biting the other. He was screaming bloody murder as each tear from his arms was felt fully on his physical body. "Odd can last a little while longer, but Yumi needs my help now." He began to swing towards the factory. AS he was within one more swing of the Titan's neck, he witnessed the elevator being thrown into the air. He saw it impact the top floors of a distant business skyscraper.

The beast quickly whipped its head back. "Oh God no!" Stephan screamed as he attached to its shoulder. He quickly whipped into the air after the monster. Without even looking, the beast grabbed the chord and jerked it towards itself. Stephan heard two sickening pops that nearly made him vomit on the spot. The first was of his hinge joint at the left elbow come undone. The other was of his shoulder joint popping out completely and nearly losing his entire arm. He grimaced in horrible pain as the Titan lifted the string up. Within seconds, he joined Yumi.

**On Lyoko…** William had his great sword pressed down on an energy field Aelita was using to protect herself. Ulrich raced across the ice plateau towards William. Expecting him, William swiftly swung his blade all the way around, successfully de-virtualizing Ulrich along the waistline. Aelita fired her energy field directly into his chest, sending back into the digital sea.

"Hurry Aelita, Yumi's phone was randomly disabled and I heard the elevator cords get broken." Jeremy spoke this with urgency, fearing the worst for Yumi. Aelita began to fly towards the tower, but was shot down by the Tarantula rom before.

"I hope they can wait just a little bit longer." Aelita said as she rolled behind a pillar of ice for cover.

Odd yelled out both in pain and anger as he watched both Yumi and Stephan swallowed by a single Titan. He took a massive step forward, but the other Titans continued to hold him back. They tugged back so hard, that they actually tore _both _of his arms. Without a sound, he ruthlessly charged towards the other Titan, a wicked smile twisting across his face. He opened his mouth to bite the other Titan in the weak spot.

It contorted its entire body around at an unexpected angle that caught Odd off guard. In the moment of hesitation, the other Titan grabbed him, and bit directly into the space Odd was positioned in. It tore back, causing Odd to come flying out with it. Steam gushed out into his face and blurred the image of an open maw. "Ahh!" was the last audible sound uttered from Odd's mouth as he too met an unfortunate fate.

Sliding down at break neck speeds until all the light from the world was gone. Suddenly, there was light again. It shone from Stephan's cell phone, which was in Yumi's hands. Stephan was putting his left arm in a makeshift sling made from the hood of his cloak. After he finished, he looked over at Yumi, who was constantly grimacing in pain. "What's wrong?" Odd asked, currently oblivious to severity of the situation.

"It burns."

"What does?"

"Everything Odd!" She gripped Stephan's phone, even putting a crack in the screen.

Using his good arm, Stephan grabbed Yumi by the shoulder and lifted her above his head. "My digital clothes provide an extra layer. All we can do is wait for the tower to be deactivated." Black smoke began to flow off his body as he tapped into the power that all polymorphic specters had. With one hand, he lifted her off the bottom of the 'chamber' they were in.

"Come on up Odd." Yumi said as she showed him her hand. He grabbed it and she pulled him up as well. "I can't believe you're doing this." She was now talking to Stephan.

**Start here**

"Even after all the pain you guys put me through, my spirit towards humanity was rekindled by the likes of Emily and Odd. I'm still doing what I've wanted to do since the beginning. Protect everyone I can even upon my death. I don't want to be like X.A.N.A. I want to be different from him." His strength was beginning to fail. "Quickly. Someone call Jeremy."

Odd whipped out his cell and dialed the number. "Hey Einstein. Would you mind finishing up quickly. We kind of have an emergency." "Oh you know. Just slowly dying. Or at least we were until Stephan put himself at risk to buy us more time." The phone slipped out of his hands and hit the liquid slowly rising towards them, killing the phone instantly.

Ulrich walked up next to Jeremy and watched as Aelita demolished the Tarantula and started to fly for the tower. "Come on, just a little bit further." He said to himself.

A few moments later, he heard Aelita say, "Tower deactivated."

Jeremy punched in a few keys before saying, "Return to the past now." The white light expanded out through the factory. It washed over the Titans who were now wandering through the city. It completely covered the world in a blanket of white.

When the light faded, the gang was sitting in the lunch room, talking and eating. "So remember, Stephan isn't gonna show up until later." Odd said as he finished his second helping of breakfast. However, it wasn't until supper that Stephan graced the school with his presence. As soon as he was outside the cafeteria, he collapsed onto his hands and knees. He had been staggering through the campus. Jim went outside to scold him. "So you finally decided to show eh?" He said as he lifted Stephan back onto his legs. But his knees wobbled and he went down again. The group went outside to watch.

Stephan looked up at Jim, and said plainly, "I would have shown up earlier, but I had to walk from outside the far end of town to here." He was still breathing heavily, as if he had been walking all day.

"Oh yeah, and what happened?" Jim asked with his arms crossed.

"Well, it started with the news of my parents having died in a fatal car incident." Stephan lied this out with a near perfect poker face. "Then, an electrical fire started up, which burned down the house. Fortunately, my aunt was out of the house. I wouldn't know where she went, but she took the car with her."

"Oh, well that is certainly excusable. Why don't we talk to Mr. Delmas?" Jim said, scratching the back of his head.

"Can I eat supper first? It would be the only meal I've had all day." Stephan said, which was probably the only thing that was true.

"Sure Black." He said as he helped Stephan up and towards the Lyoko Warriors. "How about you help him, since you all hang together anyways." As Jim turned his back to go tell Delmas, Jeremy and Aelita looked at him skeptically.

"So what really happened?" Ulrich asked as they guided him to a seat.

"Well, while attacking us with the Titans, he was also repossessing the things he created for me. He decoded my home, my 'aunt', and even took the car away. He left my laptop behind, but that was it."

"What about Millie? I thought your aunt was her mom." Yumi said.

"X.A.N.A. had her under the influence that that was her mother to help further my fake backstory. She still exists, but she doesn't think we're related anymore."

Jeremy spoke coldly, saying, "Well, have fun picking up the scraps of your life, now goodbye." He picked up his tray and started to walk off.

Yumi stood and blocked him. "How can you say that? He's basically lost everything in his life after doing everything he could to extend ours."

"He's X.A.N.A. Jr. Yumi. He might as well be a monster that got left behind. He definitely isn't part of the group anymore."

"Why not let the people decide through a vote?" Odd suggested. "It's not like you're our dictator. A leader, but no an overlord by any stretch."

"Fine." Jeremy said.

"By a majority." Yumi said. The rest agreed to this idea. Yumi pulled out a notebook and tore it into five pieces. Each person cast a ballot and handed it to Ulrich to read.

Ulrich looked at each ballot and then turned them face down. "The votes are tallied up and the results are 3 to 2, which means…"

**From this point out, three different timelines have spawned in my head. The original timeline will be played out on this story, and the alternate two will be under names, which will be updated onto this chapter when I decide what to call them. I want to record all three so that I don't lose my mind holding two of them in. The next chapter to each will be written and submitted at nearly the same time, so the rest of the story is gonna take a lot of time to write, but that's what I wanted anyways.**

**To those who read the 'dark' part marked with warnings, it won't get that bad at any other point in the story. Those warnings will also probably not appear again.**

**The other timelines are on Vengeance for the Unwanted, and Possessions Have Power.**


	5. A Friend in Need

Chapter 5-T1

"What?" Jeremy said without expression.

"Hah, majority wins!" Yumi said, jumping up into the air. "I wonder who voted on Odd's and my side?"

"I didn't." Both Jeremy and Aelita said simultaneously. They both looked at Ulrich with cold eyes. Ulrich started to experience a cold sweat. Jeremy crossed his arms while Aelita turned her hands into fists.

"What? The guy saved our lives." He said, his hand scratching the back of his neck. "Plus, he's lost almost everything. Why destroy the last strand of hope he has for humanity? You know, since he does have the power, he could easily become bitter over the matter and join X.A.N.A.'s ranks." Ulrich looked at Stephan. What he didn't tell the group was what Stephan had told him the night they spent at his house.

"You know this will only bring bad news, right?" Jeremy said as he took his tray away. The group was now moving to dump their trays and head for the principal's office.

"Speaking of bad news," Stephan said, placing his tray on the metal counter. "Where am I gonna live? I can't afford to live on campus."

"We'll get our parents to make a deal." Odd said with a wide smile on his face.

"I know my parents already don't want to pay my tuition with my grades." Ulrich said as he opened the door for the rest. "They'd rather leave me in a room alone with textbooks than have me hang out with you guys."

"My parents will probably have you sleep in the living room for tonight." Yumi said as she put a hand on Stephan's shoulder. "You can eat with chopsticks, yes?"

Stephan imagined himself trying to each with chopsticks, and couldn't help laughing out loud. "I'm sure I could get used to it. And I think your parents would be delighted to see what I can cook up myself." He gave a friendly smile to Yumi. Ulrich laughed nervously. He still would have to get used to Stephan's friendly attitude towards people in general. Sometimes it worried him.

Stephan stepped into the principal's office alone. The secretary looked at him with sympathetic eyes. She pointed into the office without saying a word. Stephan nodded and walked into the office. Mr. Delmas sat staring directly into his computer monitor. Glancing in his direction, he paused the game on the computer and turned the chair to face him. Clasping his hands together on the desk, he asked, "So I hear you have some cereal home probs?"

Stephan's eyes widened in confusion and surprise.

"Sorry. I've been learning 'street talk' from my daughter and I thought it might help lighten the mood a bit. I've heard all about the tragic incident. I guess you won't be staying with us anymore."

"Yes I will be." Stephan answered with a weight of sadness in his voice.

"Are you at least going to leave for the funerals?" Mr. Delmas raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Of course, but I'm going hoping to return and become a permanent student here at Kadic." Stephan explained coolly. He then sniffled a bit. _Got to keep it looking somewhat real. Come on, you can do better._

Mr. Delmas looked worried. Almost confused as well. "What about the people you know back in the US?"

Stephan looked down at the ground with soulful eyes. "To be honest, I never had any friends back home. I was more or less alone in the world. Here, I quickly made friends with a group of people. I just don't want to lose them." He sighed heavily, a tear dropping from his eye. This part was real. He breathed heavily and leaned back. "They're all I have left." He wiped a tear from his eyes. It didn't strike him until now. He's lost everything, except for the small number of people that cared whether he lived or died. He looked up at Delmas, who nodded, water building up around his eyes.

"And how do you plan to pay for tuition and dorm costs?" Delmas asked briskly, trying not to break down as well.

"My friends are helping me out with that." Stephan said with a smile. He had a feeling. The feeling that he wasn't alone in the pain he felt about his life crashing down around him.

"You are dismissed." Delmas said. Stephan bowed his head and stood up. Walking towards the door, he couldn't help but think about how he was going to dig himself out of the whole he made after he said he was leaving for a few days.

As he walked outside into a hallway, he saw Yumi and Odd talking on their cell phones. "Ok. Bye Mom. See ya later Dad." Odd and Yumi told their parents as they hung up. Odd turned towards Stephan with a smile. "Guess what buddy? Yumi and my parents' agreed on them co-paying your tuition."

"My parents have a guest room that they're setting up for you." Yumi said.

"Thanks. How could I ever repay you?" Stephan asked as he began to walk back out onto the campus.

"If you can program things for yourself, then can you make some better weapons for me in Lyoko?" Odd said excitedly.

"Odd!" Yumi said in surprise. "I don't think you shouldn't have to repay us at all. You already did by risking yourself for us."

"Nah, I'm fine doing that for ya." Stephan said as Jeremy approached him from the side.

"Now that your life is getting back on track, why don't you tell us your back story? I mean the real one."

"I guess I owe you that much in the least. Well, using data gathered from watching interactions between you guys and humans in general, X.A.N.A. decided upon creating the ultimate polymorphic specter, capable of digging into your group and tearing it apart. He used William's DNA helix as an example and translated it into code. It took him days, but he successfully coded a program that would react naturally to emotional stimuli, that being me. Then he coded my personality and appearance. He made it so that females in general would fall in love with me. My skills and preferences would help me be accepted by the whole group." He explained this while walking through campus. Most of the kids had disappeared into the dorms as the sun began to touch the horizon. The group was walking towards the gate to split up for the night.

"On a side note, he went so far as to even upload me the memories of a teenage boy who had been experimented on about a year ago. He was hooked up to a computer and the scientists attempted to upload his consciousness into the digital world. It failed miserably resulting in his death, but most of his memories were translated into a video feed that they were able to watch. It ran up to the last few minutes of his life, when the mind ran out of long term memory. I have it all." Stephan saw the bench where he saw them the first day. He walked over and sat on it. Aelita and Jeremy sat on either side of him, eyebrows raised. Odd sat down in front of the bench while Ulrich leaned against the same tree as from before. Yumi sat down next to Odd.

Now situated on the bench, Stephan continued. "He then virtualized me into the real world and created a home and supervisor for me. Giving me the laptop, he told me to remove my data from Lyoko so that deactivating the tower wouldn't kill me." Odd leaned in closer, intrigued. Aelita and Jeremy both were locked in amazement and fear of the potential power X.A.N.A. could harness. "He then ordered me to hack into Jeremy's laptop and either redirect or destroy the super scanner. While doing so, I came upon a to do list that I wasn't supposed to find. It was a message sent from X.A.N.A. to William outlining the full plan to him so that he would understand why I entered the group."

"What did it say?" Yumi said curiously.

"Before I answer, I have to tell you something important. X.A.N.A. wanted me to blend in with humans so much, he even chose to give me the power of choice."

"So?" Ulrich said as he slipped his hands into his pockets.

"That means that I had the choice to follow him or my own desires. I chose to read the document, and was horrified. His plans involved making Yumi fall in love with me. It would devastate Ulrich, and he would leave the group. I would then break Yumi's heart and she would leave. Odd, caught up in the middle, would probably desert himself. Next, using my wits I would drive Jeremy into a state of lunacy by outwitting him at every corner. Finally, I would trick Aelita into going into Lyoko to throw her into the digital sea. Daddy would come rescue her. Then… we would kill him, and probably Aelita as well, so X.A.N.A. could use the replicas to destroy humanity."

Jeremy jerked forward. "Replicas? Of what?"

"Lyoko. There are dozens of supercomputers buried in military bases around the world. All under X.A.N.A.'s control. Each one is producing some sort of mechanical monster-piece to help eradicate all organic life. You should be happy I have the power of choice. I chose to give this information. To help you destroy that which is more or less my own dad. I chose to be someone else and not to follow his footsteps."

"Any idea on how to stop him?" Ulrich said. They saw Yumi's parents pull up to the entrance in their family car.

"The Skidbladnir is your best bet at hunting him down in the net. We should start looking A.S.A.P."

Odd looked up at him. "We have enough seats in the Skid for you too."

"No thanks. I intercepted a prototype blueprint for a skid X.A.N.A. planned on giving William so he could hunt you down. I'm going to re-calibrate it and use it myself. Also, you don't have to call me S anymore. It doesn't matter now."

"We better get going." Yumi said as she got up.

Odd jumped up and stretched his arms out. "Yeah, it's getting late." Ulrich yawned and started heading back into the dorms. Odd raced past him and pushed him.

"Odd!" Ulrich yelled as he chased after him.

Jeremy watched as Stephan and Yumi walked off towards the front gate. Looking at Aelita, he said, "I still don't trust him."

Aelita's eyes grew thin as slits. "I'm not going to anytime soon either."

Stephan piled what few possessions he had left in the trunk. In a duffel bag sat two changes of clothes, his fedora, and $2,000 worth of valuable, miscellaneous items he was able to save from the fire. The laptop stayed in a bag with a strap that wrapped over his left shoulder.

Yumi opened one rear door and Stephan opened the other. Yumi's mother told Hiroki sternly to move into the middle. Stephan ducked down and sat on Hiroki's left while Yumi sat on his right. "Oh, Yumi's in loooove." Hiroki taunted out. "But what happened to Ulrich one would wonder." A smile crawled across his face. He could see Yumi turn shades of red as she raised a fist to punch his lights out.

Stephan raised an open palm. "Calm yourself. Approach him with words, not violence."

Yumi lowered her hand. She looked at Hiroko with cold eyes. Hiroki flinched in fear. "Hiroki," She started with a calm voice. "Would you please stop? Now." She spoke with an authoritative voice. What caught Hiroki dead silent was the cold glare though. She looked back up at Stephan. "How was that?"

Stephan scratched the back of his head nervously. He also wore a fake smile. "Better." He said with a stammer in his voice.

"Here's your new home!" Yumi's parents spoke simultaneously. The car pulled into the driveway and the gate closed behind them. The engine stopped as everyone began to exit the vehicle. Stepping around the car to the trunk, Stephan could see two massive windows next to each other. One went to Yumi's room and the other to Hiroki's, most likely. Stephan grabbed his duffel bag and wrapped it over his right shoulder. Yumi's parents opened the door to a hallway. Within two steps of the entrance, Stephan took his shoes off and scooted them next to the others. The rest followed, surprised at his knowledge of Japanese tradition. "Upstairs, down the hall, and across from Yumi's room is where you will be staying."

Stephan turned around halfway up the stairs. "Thank you so much." He said as he bowed deeply for at least 3 seconds. Yumi's father returned the gesture with a less deep bow.

He walked down the hallway and saw a pair of doors, one on the right, one on the left. He peeked in the one on the left. Jumping back, he quickly realized that was Yumi's room. Entering the one on the right, he saw an empty room with no windows. A closet opened up on the wall to his left and a bed with plain white sheets sat in the back right corner. Yumi walked in behind him.

"So, how is this compared to your old room?"

Stephan turned around with his eyes wet with tears. "It's perfect." He sat the duffel bag in the closet and began to hand up his clothes. He then pulled out his black fedora and sat it on the shelf above it. He sat on his bed and then laid down. Yumi left the room and closed the door behind her. She never heard the lights go off.

She checked up on him at about nine just before going to bed. The lights were off, but the white light of his computer screen shone brightly on his bed. She closed the door and went to bed herself. Her world was black as she slept throughout the night. She heard a light whisper. "Are you awake?" Is what it said. It slowly grew louder until it was a normal speaking voice. Then she felt her shoulder being poked. Her eyes slowly opened to the sight of Stephan kneeling at the edge of her bed.

"What the hell?" She said in a whisper voice.

"Shh" Stephan said as he lifted a finger to his mouth.

"What time is it?" She whispered. "And why are you in my room?"

"Let's see. It's about six in the morning and I'm bored out of my mind." Stephan answered as he stood up.

"School doesn't start for another hour and a half. At least. Also, get out while I get dressed." Yumi said as she got up from bed and headed for her closet. Stephan walked out and waited in the hall until he heard his name called. Stepping back in, he saw she was wearing her normal outfit of all black. "Didn't you sleep?"

"No. Being a computer program, sleep is only for pleasure."

"Then what did you do last night?"

Stephan leaned against the wall. "Well, first I programmed Odd an addition to his laser arrows. Also, I made a special little rock that I carry on me in Lyoko. Then, around midnight, I started to use Adobe Illustrator and built a Japanese anime style drawing of Emily. He showed her the file on her computer. It looked just like her, except in the form of Anime.

"Wow, that's really good." Yumi said while she sat down on her bed.

"Then since it was about 3 in the morning, I started talking with William." Stephan said this nonchalantly, as if it was common to contact him.

"How?" She said in disbelief. Her jaw dropped as if gravity had just started to affect it.

"I have contact with everything in the net. I don't know where he is exactly, but I can contact his form that is free of X.A.N.A. It resides somewhere deep in the net, that's all I know."

"That's amazing! What did he say?" Yumi said. Her hands were in her lap as she braced for news about William.

"He's scared." Yumi looked skeptical. "About what X.A.N.A.'s doing. He also isn't sure why, but he thinks there's also a replica that's based from the International Space Station as well. He's also angry about what happened to him."

"That sounds more like William." Yumi said as she headed down the hall. Stephan was close in tow, ready to start the next day.

**Hours later…** Stephan, Yumi, and the thick headed William clone sat off on the bleachers while the underclassmen ran on the track. Jim watched them from the other side where the other 8th graders were. As the four on the track finished, Jim looked up at Yumi and Stephan, who chose to spend study hall outside. "How about we get Stern, Della Robia, Delmas, and a volunteer from the 9th grade class?"

William started to stand up, but Yumi put her hand on his shoulder. He sat back down while Stephan jumped up. "I'm ready coach!" He yelled across the field. Tapping into the specter powers, he quickly raced across the track and stopped between Odd and Ulrich.

"Ah, Black has decided to join us." Jim said as he reset his stopwatch. From left to right, they were lined up: Ulrich, Stephan, Odd, and Sissy. Stephan looked over at Ulrich, then Odd. "Ready," Jim started. The racers all got down in the racer position. "Set… Go!" Jim yelled as he raised his arm into the air. Clicking start on the stopwatch, he saw Ulrich and Stephan shoot ahead of Odd and Sissy.

Neck and neck, Stephan turned to Ulrich. "I want to help you with Yumi."

They passed the quarter point as Ulrich said, "What do you mean help? Were just good friends."

Stephan took a breath, then started. "I see it in your body language, as well as your eyes. I want to make up all the awkwardness and rivalry by helping you." They then passed the halfway point. "I know a song that we can mix together and you can sing for her. It's called _Start Again._ We can record it at her house. Her parents have sound equipment that we can use. I saw it while exploring last night."

"Thanks." Ulrich said as they passed the three quarter point.

"Sure thing." Stephan said. He then tapped deeper into his specter powers and sped ahead of Ulrich. Zooming down the straightaway, he swept past Jim, setting a new record time. Stopping at the finish line, as Ulrich passed it, he said, "We'll meet up tonight and get to work on instrumentation."

**About a week later…** Stephan and Ulrich were in Stephan's room while Yumi sat in her room across the hall she was watching TV with her door cracked. Stephan closed the door and sat at a table with a mic. Ulrich stood at another mic facing towards the closet. He looked at Stephan. "Are you sure she won't hear us? I'm doing lyrics tonight."

"Don't worry, I'll start the music and you focus on the song." Stephan said.

"Do you think she'll like it?" Ulrich asked. He was twiddling his fingers and looking at Stephan.

"I'm sure she'll love it." Stephan nodded at Ulrich, who nodded back and turned towards the closet for acoustics. Stephan turned the music on. Then he walked over and opened his door slightly, he also slowly opened Yumi's door about 1/3 of the way.

Ulrich waited for his cue as violins turned to a guitar. A bass kicked in with tambourines. It repeated, but with violins, then it all died but the bass. "And I remember everything, everything I loved. I gave it away, like it wasn't enough."

"All the words I said and, all the words you forgive. How could I, hurt you again? What if I let you in, what if I make it right, what if I give it up, what if I want to try? What if you take a chance, what if I learn to love, what if, what if we start again?"

The chorus kicked in as Stephan joined background. "On this time, I can make it right. With one more try, can we start again? In my life, you can see it now, can we start again?"

Yumi heard some sort of rock playing in the background, she turned the TV up in reaction. They should know better than to play that stuff that loud.

Ulrich started up again alone. "Emptiness inside me, wondering if you say it's my mistake, and it's hurting me. I know where we've been, how'd we get so far? What if… what if we start again?"

Stephan joined him again in the chorus. "On this time, I can make it right. With one more try, can we start again? In my eyes, you can see it now. Can we start again?"

Yumi heard what she thought was Ulrich's voice over the cartoon she was watching. It sounded sweet and caring. The lyrics held tight to her as well. She opened her door and walked over to the slightly open door. She looked in to see Ulrich singing into the mic. His eyes were closed and he was smiling. She smiled warmly and kept listening.

Then the bridge started to play and Ulrich sang alone. "I'm lost inside the pain, I feel without you. I can't stop holding on, I need you with me. I'm caught inside the pain, can we ever start again?" In a scream voice, he sang, "I'm lost without you." In a normal voice, Ulrich yelled "One more try!"

They started singing the chorus together. "Can we start again? In my eyes, can you forgive me now?" Then Ulrich adlibbed the Outro to the song.

"One more try! Can you forgive me now?"

Then Ulrich whisper sang alone. "Can we start again?"

As the music died out, Ulrich heard the door creak. Turning towards it, he start to blush like crazy.

He opened his mouth to speak, but found no words. Yumi looked straight into his eyes with teary eyes of her own. "Yes, I think we can." Ulrich gave Stephan the death glare, but Stephan only smiled back. He then mouthed the words, 'Your welcome,' as Yumi gave Ulrich a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek.


End file.
